How Jega became the devil

If you are looking for evidence of disarray within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ranks, look no further than the mixed signals it is sending over how it views its newest bête noire – chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega.

Party chairman, Adamu Muazu, now says the ruling party has absolute confidence in Jega’s ability to organise free and fair elections. Coming against the backdrop of the demonisation of the man by leading members of PDP – like head of the Presidential Campaign Council, Ahmadu Ali, spokesman, Femi Fani-Kayode and Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark, this conciliatory statement was a tad suspicious.

It was reminiscent of the public show of support that some owners of struggling English Premier League clubs often extend to their embattled managers. Perhaps it was to lull the unsuspecting fellows into a false sense of security. More often than not, days after receiving the dreaded vote of confidence they get the sack.

Predictably, Muazu was calling Jega a liar twenty four hours later when he received a delegation of Africa Union (AU) election observers in Abuja.

One of the buzzwords of the Goodluck Jonathan administration is ‘transformation.’ After the theatrics of the last fortnight, I now concede that PDP is truly the party of ‘uncommon transformation’. In a matter of weeks they have managed to convince themselves – only – that the mild-mannered Jega is a devil with two horns.

How this dramatic transformation has come about remains a mystery. But the relationship has so deteriorated that Clark and his group not only demanded the INEC chief’s resignation but also his arrest. Some so-called ‘Goodluck Jonathan Lagos Grassroots’ group has been placing full-page advertisements in newspapers listing what it considers evidence of the electoral umpire’s bias. The adverts usually end with an earnest prayer or wish for his resignation.

This is the same man that supervised the enthronement of Jonathan as president in 2011 even when his chief rival, Muhammadu Buhari, was crying that the polls were rigged.

He is the same fellow who oversaw the Ekiti State 2014 governorship polls. When Fayose ‘defeated’ Fayemi the commission was lauded even when only 476,870 prospective voters, representing 64.98 percent were eligible to vote in the exercise.

INEC in the state received 732,166 Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) for distribution but only 476,870 were collected. Out of this, approximately 65% that were eligible voters even less – 360, 455 – not up to 50% of those on the roll, took up the option of exercising their rights. PDP didn’t quibble about statistics back then; they joyfully claimed ‘victory’.

Now the party’s Presidential Campaign Organisation is demanding 100% PVC distribution as the basis for assessing INEC’s success or failure. In 2014 in Ekiti, 65% was wonderful, in 2015 that level of card release has become not only unacceptable; it is evidence of Jega’s partiality.

Although he has firmly stated that the polls earlier slated for February were shifted on the strength of a letter written to him by Service Chiefs demanding a six-week postponement, the ruling party insists on pushing its version of events that it was also down to the commission not being prepared.

Well, PDP got its postponement, but it harvested widespread condemnation for forcing it through at gunpoint. Hell hath no fury like a drowning incumbent or party – especially when handed a pyrrhic victory. The speed with which the military high command rushed out its pledge of ‘neutrality’ after the contentious shift, underscores how damaging the military’s meddling has been for the powers-that-be.

Jega would have been crowned with a halo by now if only he had sung from the ruling party’s smeared hymn sheet and accepted his commission was unprepared. Unfortunately, the professor doesn’t do political karaoke!

In the hands of the PDP, the INEC boss has now been conferred with a special talent for ubiquity that only a Nigerian equivalent of the Scarlet Pimpernel can manage. He’s been seen by ruling party agents – here, there and everywhere. Today, when he isn’t holding meetings with the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), he is closeted with All Progressives Congress (APC) top shots in the agreeable environs of Dubai to plot the best way to ease Buhari into Aso Rock. That is according to the spooks at Legacy House.

He has, according to PDP, come up with a scheme that has ensured that PVCs were distributed in such a way that they all landed in APC strongholds. Only a ‘naughty’ professor could have pulled that off.

As though his litany of sins were not enough to send him on pre-retirement leave immediately, Jega has suddenly developed a suspicious fondness for technology. It is enough to infuriate any patriot who’s not a supporter of the opposition.

Why can’t we return to the perfect 2011 TVCs since many haven’t received Temporary Voters Cards (TVCs), the PDP has asked? Never mind that only PVCs were used in the Osun and Ekiti elections and no one asked for Jega and his team to be strung up on trees.

And what is this strange device called the card reader which would require a team of nuclear scientists from NASA to test properly before they can be used by dim witted Nigerian voters? The fact that we all use ATM machines, debit and credit cards, is no reason to burden us with such sophisticated things as PVCs. Truly, Jega must be a devilish alien sent to cause confusion in Nigeria.

But hang on for a minute. Didn’t Jonathan promise at his Lagos rally that he was now going to fight corruption with technology? His team was probably tuned to a different frequency. If our great leader is now a convert to technology, why are his people still unbelievers – rooted in the dark ages?

Indeed, Jonathan has even boasted that it was under his watch that Nigerians first started bothering about voters’ card. Before him, I suspect, voters were probably content with identifying themselves using palm fronds. Truly, a president with many firsts!

In the past, opposition parties were usually the ones to moan about the partiality and incompetence of INEC and its predecessors. For the first time ever a government in power is rolling out its entire machinery to demonise and destroy the electoral arbiter. For me, it is a sign that the commission’s leadership is inching in the direction of impartiality.

When the elections finally hold on March 28 and April 11, they will not be perfect. There would be much for all sides to criticise. The losers in this bitter contest are bound to end up in court. However, I find it interesting that PDP is setting such standards for INEC before it would accept the results of the coming polls.

Among other things, it is demanding that every registered voter must have a PVC – even those who refuse to make the effort to go and pick up theirs; every card reader must be proven to be functioning; better still, let’s go back to TVCs; it even wants to get into the commission’s internal administrative arrangements to ensure that APC sympathisers are not in the majority!

What is sauce for Jega should be sauce for Jonathan. Perhaps we should apply the same high standards set for INEC to assess the PDP’s presidential candidate. Before he can be reelected Nigerians want 24 hour electricity, perfectly tarred federal roads in cities and nicely-finished inter-state highways.

We also demand the return of all Nigerian territories seized by insurgents – in other words, the country as Jonathan received it in 2011; the return of the abducted Chibok girls unharmed; pipe borne water; health care in every hamlet, a 10% drop in crime rate; single-digit inflation rate; single-digit unemployment rate etc – just to mention a few things on our shopping list. Good luck Jonathan!